Scott's Journal

So there’s this concept in rhetoric called ‘the strawman argument’ where a person assumes the roles of both sides of an argument, then trivializes or over-simplifies one side of the argument and then tears it a new one in the role of the other side of the argument. The name comes from the idea of attacking a version of your opponent made out of straw (that can’t fight back) and then going around and telling everyone that you beat said opponent.This might be a little hard to visualize, but thankfully while I was trawling the internet recently I came across this helpful graphic which almost perfectly illustrates the strawman argument as it pertains to ‘strong female characters’ in video games. Let’s take a second to talk about why this argument (and this particular logical fallacy) is dumb, shall we?

(Note: This post was written on July 6th, 2015, the day after Dragon Ball Super episode 1 aired)Alright, I know I implied that I was going to talk about why American audiences began importing Japanese culture this week, but we’ve got to address something else instead. It’s time to talk Dragon Ball.Dragon Ball Super premiered in Japan on the 5th of July, and like any good enormous nerd I was on that shit like a fat kid on a Twinkie. More Dragon Ball? Are you fucking kidding me? The scientific community could have announced a cure for cancer on Sunday and I wouldn’t have given a shit. You know why? Because I wouldn’t have known it happened. Because I would have spent all day watching fucking Dragon Ball over and over and over.

I’ve always been a fan of the Phoenix Wright games, and I’ve had Dual Destinies sitting on my 3DS basically since I bought it. Recently however I’ve had a bunch of spare time on my hands (and a resurgence of desire to play handheld games) and I finally sat down to take a crack at it. Admittedly, I haven’t had a chance to beat the game yet but we’re operating on a deadline here so this is what you get.The main thing that’s captivated me about this game – and I say captivated but it’s more like ‘amused me beyond belief’ – is actually due to an unexpected problem with English translation. See, since the beginning, the Phoenix Wright games in English have had a really weird conceit about them not taking place in Japan. I seem to recall them saying early on that the games took place nonspecifically in the United States, but the really important part is that the games do not, according to the English translation, take place in Japan. In Dual Destinies this becomes a bit of a hilarious problem.